Cyrus the Great

Persian king (r. c. 559-c. 530 b.c.e.)

• Born: c. 601-590 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Media (modern northern Iran)
• Died: c. 530 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Scythia (southern Russia)

Cyrus conquered Media and brought Persia into the arena of world leadership by defeating the Neo-Babylonians (Chaldeans) in Babylon (c. 539 b.c.e.). He created a Persian Empire—the Achaemenian dynastic empire—stretching from Turkey to India. His unusually beneficent treatment of conquered peoples was widely praised throughout the ancient Near East as well as the later Greco-Roman world.

Early Life

The lengthiest accounts of the early life of Cyrus (SI-ruhs) are found in the works of Greek historians Xenophon and Herodotus. Xenophon’s Kyrou paideia (fifth century b.c.e.; The Cyropaedia: Or, Education of Cyrus, 1560-1567), however, is not so much a biography of Cyrus as a “historical romance,” that is, largely fiction, with only a few bits of factual information. Most of the valuable information in Xenophon is that concerning Cyrus’s conquest of Babylon; the information covering Cyrus’s early life is of little value or interest.

In like manner, the information in Herodotus’s Historiai Herodotou (c. 425 b.c.e.; The History, 1709) contains speculative legends about the birth and youth of Cyrus that were most likely borrowed from earlier legends, such as those surrounding the birth of Sargon of Akkad from the twenty-fourth century b.c.e. There is even some similarity to the legends about Romulus, the founder of Rome in the eighth century b.c.e. Therefore, little confidence can be placed in Herodotus’s account of Cyrus’s early life. That Cyrus was half Median and half Persian, however, seems to be quite likely, and he probably spent part of his youth in Media with his grandfather, Astyages. Cyrus’s father was a Persian named Cambyses, and his mother, Mandane, was a Median.

Life’s Work

Most of Herodotus’s and Xenophon’s accounts of Cyrus deal with his military campaigns, which were widespread throughout Media, Lydia (western Turkey), former provinces of the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires, including Babylon itself, and later the unsuccessful campaign against the Massagetae, a nomadic tribe in Scythia.

Cyrus began his military rule over the Persians about 559 b.c.e., and by 550 he had taken over neighboring Media and added it to his kingdom. The decisive battle over the Medes was probably at Pasargadae, the city that was to become Cyrus’s capital. He also conquered the capital city of Media, Ecbatana.

Of considerable interest to Herodotus was Cyrus’s first contact with the Greek world when he defeated Croesus, king of Sardis, in Lydia in 546. Shortly afterward the Greeks of the regions of Aeolia and Ionia (also in western Turkey) submitted to the rule of Cyrus. A revolt in the city of Miletus in 499 was to bring on the famous conflict between the Greeks of the mainland and the Persian Empire.

Between 546 and 540, Cyrus campaigned primarily in the Near East. The famous Behistun Inscription of the Persian Darius the Great mentions that by 520 several areas were already under Persian rule, many of which were probably added while Cyrus was still alive, including Parthia, Bactria, and Sogdiana.

The most famous conquest by Cyrus was that of Babylon in 539. Considerable information dealing with this battle is known from the Bible, Babylonian cuneiform, and the writings of Xenophon and Herodotus. Isaiah 45:13 records the prediction that Cyrus would set the Jews free from their slavery in Babylon. The same theme of Jewish return was mentioned by other biblical prophets, including Jeremiah (16:14-15; 23:7-8; 25:12-14; 50:8-10), Ezekiel (11:14-21; 28:24-26; 34:11-16; 37:1-39:29), Daniel (6:28; 10:1), and the work Bel and the Dragon of the Apocrypha.

The Judeo-Roman historian Flavius Josephus (c. 37-c. 100 c.e.) said that Cyrus was so impressed with these predictions that he decided to free the Jews on the basis of them (Antiquitates Judaicae, 93 c.e.; The Antiquities of the Jews, 1773). For whatever reason Cyrus made his decision, one should not assume that his treatment of the Jews was unique. One of the most notable features of Cyrus’s reign was his benevolent treatment of former captive peoples who had served as provincial servants of the Neo-Assyrians and later of the Neo-Babylonians. Their former plight was in marked contrast to conditions under Cyrus’s rule. Little wonder, then, that Cyrus was admired by many of his new subjects as being a benevolent ruler.

The benevolent rule of Cyrus in the biblical texts is correlated in the ancient cuneiform sources called the “Nabonidus Chronicle,” the “Cyrus Cylinder,” and the poem “Persian Verse Account.” These sources mention that Nabonidus, the last of the Neo-Babylonian rulers, was so preoccupied with the worship of the moon god Sin that he neglected the worship and state-cult of Marduk. This infuriated the priests of Marduk and much of the population of Babylon. Therefore, when Cyrus and his generals attacked that great city, they probably had assistance from defectors of Babylon. In fact, the “Cyrus Cylinder” mentions that Marduk specifically chose Cyrus as a champion of the rights of the Babylonian people.

In the classical Greek sources Herodotus and Xenophon, Cyrus was described as an ideal general, politician, and diplomat. In later times, Cicero and Scipio Africanus expressed admiration for the military exploits of Cyrus. In spite of all the great military victories of Cyrus, his death was at the hands of a nomadic tribe, the Massagetae of Scythia. To make matters more embarrassing for the great king of Persia, the Massagetae were led in battle by a woman, Queen Tomyris. According to Herodotus, Tomyris decapitated Cyrus, dipped his head in a skin full of human blood and gore, and said that Cyrus could now have his fill of blood.

Significance

The remarkable interest in the life and influence of Cyrus the Great exhibited by the Hebrews, Babylonians, and, later, the Greek historians can be explained most easily by first describing the harshness of earlier rule by the Assyrians and Babylonians. Both the Assyrians and the Babylonians were oppressive in their collection of tribute, taxes, and gifts in honor of state events. On occasion, quotas of military men were required of conquered provinces. In addition to these humiliations, the rulers sometimes destroyed temples and shrines of the subjected provinces and forced the people to make an oath of allegiance, under “divine” penalty if the oath was broken.

Therefore, Cyrus’s popularity arose from his restoration of native religious observances; his tolerance of their cults was a welcome relief from earlier oppression. The famous biblical example of such tolerance found in the “Cyrus Decree” in Ezra 1:1-4, which mentions that the Jews (former captives of the Babylonians) could return home to Jerusalem in Judah and rebuild their temple, is typical of Cyrus’s policies. Cyrus’s burial monument in Pasargadae was humble by ancient standards. It was inscribed with words to the effect that he wanted to be remembered as founder of the Persian Empire and master of Asia.

Kings of the Achaemenian Dynasty

c. 559-c. 530

• Cyrus the Great

529-522

• Cambyses II

522

• Smerdis the Magian*

522-486

• Darius the Great

486-465

• Xerxes I

465-423

• Artaxerxes I

424-405

• Darius II

*Impostor pretending to be Smerdis, son of Cyrus and deceased brother of Cambyses II

Bibliography

Abbott, Jacob. Cyrus the Great. 1880. Reprint. New York: Simon, 2001. Biography includes illustrations and maps.

Dougherty, Raymond Philip. Nabonidus and Belshazzar: A Study of the Closing Events of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. 1929. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1980. Dougherty arranges the cuneiform evidence in probable chronological order, showing the sequence of events leading to Cyrus’s capture of Babylon.

Drews, Robert. “Sargon, Cyrus, and Mesopotamian Folk History.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 33 (October, 1974): 387-393. Compares the legendary birth accounts of Sargon and Cyrus and concludes that the Greek historians borrowed oral legends about Cyrus’s birth and early life.

Gordon, Cyrus H., and Gary A. Rendsburg. The Bible and the Ancient Near East. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998. An account of the historical context for the Hebrew Bible explores the origins of stories, such as the liberation of the Jews, in the cultures of the ancient Near East. Parallels in the foundational stories told in the Egyptian, Persian, Greek, and Hebrew cultures of the time are examined.

Lawrence, John M. “Cyrus: Messiah, Politician, and General.” Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin, n.s. 25 (1985): 5-28. An attempted comparison and harmonization of the accounts of Cyrus from the biblical, cuneiform, and classical sources.

Lawrence, John M. “Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Attitudes Towards Foreigners and Their Religion.” Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin, n.s. 19 (1982): 27-40. Describes the cruelty and oppression of the Assyrians and Babylonians prior to Cyrus’s freeing of countless provinces of their former captives and the stark contrast of Cyrus’s benevolent rule.

Mallowan, Max. “Cyrus the Great (558-529 b.c.).” Iran 10 (1972): 1-17. Provides a chronology of the conquests by Cyrus and a linguistic-historical analysis of some of the cuneiform inscriptions that mention him.

Vogelsang, W. J. Rise and Organisation of the Achaemenid Empire: The Eastern Iranian Evidence. New York: Brill, 1992. Examines the eastern part of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, which was founded in the sixth century b.c.e. by Cyrus the Great.

Wiseman, Donald J. The Chronicles of the Chaldaean Kings (626-556 B.C.) in the British Museum. London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1961. Includes historical background for the struggle between the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires shortly before Cyrus conquered Babylon.